Passage of Mexican Legislation to Combat Impunity Against the Country's Journalists IFEX
go to original May 8, 2013

A report on how courageous Mexican journalists are threatened and assassinated while reporting on relationship between senior police and political figures and transnational narco gangs. (TheRealNews)

The International Press Institute (IPI) and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) welcome the passage of seminal legislation in Mexico designed to combat the almost complete impunity in cases of crimes committed against the country's journalists.

The changes to the Federal Code on Penal Procedure, among other statutes – all of which entered into force last Thursday, World Press Freedom Day – put into practice a constitutional reform from last summer granting the federal government the power to prosecute crimes against freedom of expression. Previously, under Mexico's federal structure, this responsibility lay primarily with state and local authorities, who have dramatically failed to protect the Mexican press from violent attacks.

IPI and WAN-IFRA travelled to Mexico this February to urge legislators to approve this so-called “secondary legislation” (i.e. complementary to the constitutional reform), as part of both organisations' focus on improving journalist safety in Mexico. Ultimately, both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies passed the measure by unanimous vote.

Read the rest at IFEX

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